Academy of Policy and Development

International school of Economics and Finance

PRINCIPLES OF INVESTMENT
Part 1: Major assignment
Module Code & Title: CLCDT19 - Principle of Investment

Contribution to Final Module Mark: 20%

Description of Assessment Task and Purpose:

Select a non-financial company listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) or Hanoi Stock
Exchange (HNX). You then confirm your choice by filling in a form created by lecturer in no later than
Sunday 17th March 2024. After this date, you will be assigned a company to work with. Each company
should be selected only once i.e. if a company name has been posted by a fellow student, nobody can
select it again.

Required:

Assuming you are recruited as an investment analyst for the APD Investment Fund. The Chief
Investment Officer (CIO) has asked you to write a report with a 2200-word limit to recommend a
relevant action regarding the shares of the company of your choice. The action should be Buy, Hold, or
Sell. To do this, you must complete a report that addresses all problems below.

To handle the requirements below, you must form and work in a group of 4-5 students. Your group
should select companies in the same industry, sector or with similar characteristics. You are required to
discuss within your group to produce the same approach for data calculations, such as performance
indicators or valuation methods. Below is the instruction on the assignment content that I expect to see in
your report.

Investment Summary (No word-count but must be in one page, 10 marks) 500w

- This is one-page summary that summarises all key points including findings and
recommendations made in the following parts of the report. You should write this part to reflect
the rationale behind the recommended action. The number of words for this part is not counted
toward the overall word-count of the coursework.

Business Model and Macroeconomics Situation (500 words, 10 marks)

- In this part you should introduce the company but focus mostly on how it makes money. The key
drivers of revenues and costs should be identified. The analysis should be supported with
relevant data from the company’s annual reports and industry. Furthermore, you should compare
 the business model within an economy and assess whether the business model is effective in the
current situation of the economy.

Financial Performance (500 words, 10 marks)

- In this part, you should compare the financial performance of your company with other
companies in your group. You should decide on the set of financial indicators or ratios used for
this purpose. Your analysis should offer an explanation for the differences/similarities in
performance between these companies.
- In addition to the above, you are required to calculate the beta of your company. The beta should
be used as an indicator of the market risk. You should explain if the financial performance trend
justifies the company’s beta. To calculate beta, you should collect the weekly data on your
company’s share prices for the last 52 weeks. The regression results should be put in Appendix.

Equity Valuation (1000 words, 50 marks)

- You are required to use three separate methods to value the shares of the company of your
choice.
- Comparative Valuation: You must use relevant ratios for this purpose, including Price to
Earnings (PE ratio), Price to Book (PB ratio), Price to Sales (PS ratio) and any other ratios that
you are confident as indicators to evaluate the company. This analysis should be done using the
other companies in your group as benchmark companies. (500w)

- Valuation using Dividend Growth Model : You must use historical dividends and make
reasonable assumptions to compute the value per share.
- Valuation using Free Cash Flow: You must compute the cash flows in the past 5 years and
make relevant assumptions to prepare a 5-year cash flow projection and a terminal cash flow for
the company. The value per share should be then calculated using discounted cash flow
technique.

500w

Recommendations (200 words, 5 marks)

- You should now be able to compare your valuations with the market price of your company’s
shares and recommend an appropriate action: buy, hold or sell.
- You should not forget to remind about potential risks or factors that would make your
recommendation change. For example, you may highlight any factor that would make your
valuations change and the expected changes in valuations.
Financial Projection (No word-count, 5 marks) 500w

- In this part, you should put the 3-5-year past financial performance and 5-year financial
projection that you have used in the Equity Valuation for information purpose.

Appendix

- This part is used for any further explanation or workings that you want to add to your main texts
(all parts above). This part will not be used for marking purpose but will be used to look for
further information. For example, in your main text analysis, you may need to provide only the
results of your valuation but you may want to post the equations that are used for calculations in
here. Similarly, you can use beta in the main text but regression results should be posted here.

- Word-count is not applied to Appendix but you must decide which information to be presented in
main texts and in Appendix because only information in main texts will be assessed for marking
purpose.

In addition to the quality of the above works, the assessment marking is also based on the following
criteria (10 marks):

- Structure and formatting.

- Number of relevant references.

- Citations using Harvard Referencing System.

- Practical data from the case.

- Practical data from the real world.

- Logically developed and structured ideas.

Assessment Submission Instructions:
- The coursework must be submitted through lecturer’s email: loc.ngo@apd.edu.vn no later than
11:59 PM on Thursday, 11 April 2024 and a hard-copy must be submitted no later than 17:00
PM on Monday, 15 April 2024 (Venue for hard-copy submission will be announced later).
Please note if you miss this deadline, your overall mark will be deducted by 20% of your marks
for each late day.
- Subject of the email would be: Class – Group number – ID of 5 members.
- A submission form MUST be placed as your cover pages for both soft-and hard-copy
submission. A submission form can be found via this link.
- In addition, you are required to submit the excel file that contains your financial projection and
valuations to lecturer email as well with the same deadlines as soft-copy submission.

Marking Criteria for Assessment:

Criteria Max Marks
Ideas logically developed and written. 2 marks
Well structured, formatted and presented 2 marks
Investment Summary (No word-count, 10 marks) 10 marks

- Average answers will simply list the key findings from the
reports.
- Better answers should critically discuss the key findings in
support of their recommended action.
Business Model (500 words, 10 marks) 10 marks

- Average answers will list the main drivers or factors that have
influence the revenues and costs of the company.
- Better answers should critically discuss how the company has
made money and how the drivers/factors could be in the
 future.
Financial Performance (500 words, 10 marks) 10 marks

- Average answers will calculate the ratios/indicators and

compare with other companies.
- Better answers should critically discuss the performance,
explain the similarities or differences and forecast the future
performance.
Equity Valuation (1000 words, 50 marks) 50 marks with 10 marks for
comparative valuation, 10
- Average answers will use historical data to compute the value
marks for dividend growth
of the shares using three methods.
valuation, and 30 marks for
- Better answers should make and explain all assumptions used
cash flow valuation.
for the calculation of value of the shares. The assumptions
should also use relevant data from financial markets. Better
answers should also compute a range of valuations.
Recommendations (200 words, 5 marks) 5 marks

- Average answers will simply compare the value per share with
the market price of the shares and recommend an action.
- Better answers should critically discuss the range of valuation
and the risks before making final recommendation.

Financial Projection (No word-count, 5 marks) 5 marks

- Average answers will simply present the financial statements

of the company.
- Better answers should present selected financial statements
with both past performance and financial projection.
Good references and examples used in the work. 2 marks
References are cited properly. 2 marks
Practical data and information from the real world 2 marks
Total 100 marks

Assessment Support Information:

Evidence of task completion should be included within an appendix and is separate from the word count.
Please follow to the formatting guidelines:
- Font / Size: Arial or Times New Roman / size 13
- Spacing / Sides: 1.5 / Single Sided
- Pagination required? Yes
- Margins: At least 2.54 to left and right and text ‘justified’
- Referencing: Full compliance with Harvard protocols (For the reference of Harvard
protocols, you can read this link.
Note usual practice is to allow +/-10%. If you submit an assignment which exceeds the prescribed word
limit, marking will cease at the point at which the limit has been exceeded and the mark will be awarded
on the basis of the extent to which the criteria for assessment have been met up to that point.

Important Information on Dishonesty & Plagiarism:

- Academy of Policy and Development Regulations define plagiarism as 'the passing off of another
person's thoughts, ideas, writings or images as one's own...Examples of plagiarism include the
unacknowledged use of another person's material whether in original or summary form. Plagiarism also
includes the copying of another student's work'.
- Plagiarism is a serious offence and is treated by the University as a form of academic dishonesty.
- In case of plagiarism found, your assignment would get zero.

Part 2: Individual Assignment

Self-evaluating your contribution to group assignment with the following criteria:
- Tasks
- Efforts
- Notes for further improvements

Instruction: Please fill in the form below and submit to the lecturer (Each member need to
submit a separate self-evaluation form.
Please access this link for the self-evaluation template